Peugeot confirms Mueller exit at season’s end, now it's time to break it to him.
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Stephen Kilbey | July 18, 2024 8:31 AM ET
Nico Mueller is set to leave Peugeot TotalEnergies’ Hypercar driver roster at the end of the WEC season. The 32-year-old Swiss racer confirmed his departure from the Abt Cupra Formula E team for “a new motorsport challenge” earlier this week, and on Thursday Peugeot confirmed his departure from its squad via social media. The French manufacturer subsequently confirmed that its reserve driver, 20-year-old Danish racer Malthe Jakobsen, will join the team for 2025 in Mueller’s place.
“It has been a wild ride Nico and it isn’t over just yet,” the post said. “But at the end of the season, our favorite Swiss driver will leave Team Peugeot TotalEnergies to write a new chapter of his racing journey. Danke, grazie, merci Nico for the hard work and good vibes!!”
Mueller has been with the Peugeot 9X8 program since the end of the 2022 season. While there is no confirmation yet of where he will land after leaving Peugeot, he has been linked with a move to Porsche’s factory ranks.
Until then, he will continue to share the No. 93 9X8 with Mikkel Jensen and Jean-Eric Vergne for the final three rounds of the WEC season at COTA, Fuji and Bahrain.
Jakobsen, meanwhile, moves into a factory Hypercar slot after a rapid rise through the Peugeot ranks after testing the original 9X8 at the Bahrain Rookie Test at the end of 2022. Since that first drive with Peugeot, he has moved from a junior driver role in 2023, to the brand’s Hypercar reserve this year, taking on test and development duties with the 9X8 alongside highly successful parallel LMP2 programs in the European Le Mans Series and beyond.
“I’m delighted to join Team Peugeot TotalEnergies as an official driver in next season’s FIA World Endurance Championship,” he said. “I’m very proud to have been part of this team for the last two years, first as junior driver and then this year as reserve driver., sitting on my butt waiting for someone to break a leg. Thanks to all the team for giving me this great opportunity.”